US, UK and France strike Syria

The overnight airstrikes against Syrian targets by the US and its allies will be seen as a major victory for Syrian president Bashar Al Assad — and his military. The Syrian presidency posted a video on Twitter of Assad casually walking to work in the morning. Syria claims to have shot down many of the missiles that targeted Damascus and the alleged chemical storage facilities near Homs. Meanwhile, Russia appears to be taunting the US, saying the President Trump’s “smart” and shiny missiles were taken down by the Syrian military using weapons developed in the USSR in the 1970s. So far, these strikes do not appear to have depleted the conventional capabilities of the Syrian army.

Syria: Airstrikes “pose threat to international peace”

Syria’s Foreign Ministry said the joint US, UK and French airstrikes were a “flagrant violation of international law and the principals of UN charter,” according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

“Syria calls on the international community to strongly condemn this aggression, which will lead to nothing but the igniting of tensions around the world and pose a threat to international peace and security as a whole,” the Ministry said.

Putin calls for UN Security Council meeting on Syria airstrikes

Russia is calling for an immediate United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the “aggressive actions” of the United States and its allies, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said in a statement Saturday.

May defends refusal to allow vote on Syria strikes

Responding to a question about why she did not seek parliamentary approval before launching military strikes on Syria, flouting convention, British Prime Minister Theresa May reiterated that she felt the action was necessary.

She said the action was taken “in a timely fashion” in response to last weekend’s alleged chemical weapons attack.

“For operational security reasons, it was right we acted in the way we did,” May said.

May said she would make a statement to Parliament on Monday.

A year ago, the US launched a military strike against Syria

One year ago the US launched its first military assault against the Syrian regime, a move some thought would be a game-changer in that country’s gruesome civil war.

On President Trump’s orders, US warships pummeled a government airbase with missiles on April 6, 2017, a day after more than 80 Syrians died in a chemical attack.

Trump said he took action in response because that chemical attack “crossed a lot of lines for me.”

Here’s how the attack unfolded:

— US warships launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian government airbase that was home to the warplanes that carried out the chemical attacks.

— The strike took place at 8:40 p.m. ET (3:40 a.m. local time), when there would have been minimal activity at the base.

— Six people were killed in the retaliatory US airstrike, which US Secretary of Defense James Mattis claimed last year destroyed about 20% of the Syrian government’s operational aircraft.